You have to check out Dan Steinberg’s D.C. Sports Bog page. Apparently Ovechkin, Brashear, Backstrom and Green (along with Chris Cooley) were all ringside at the UWC MMA Cage Fight event on Saturday night in Fairfax. Oh, and surprise surprise, Alex was in the company of a stunning young lady. I think I’m going to try that as a pickup line sometime– “Hey beautiful, want to go to a cage match?” Well at least it got them all pumped up for Sunday, so I say they should attend cage matches before every game!    

(All photos: UWC)

Okay, you’ve probably seen it ten times on other websites but it is sooo good I have to post it too.

What a difference from less than a year ago, eh?

The Capitals/Penguins rivalry is getting a lot of press after today’s game. Alex Ovetjkin has a nice round-up of the various news outlets, as well as some good video clips of Ovechkin’s “buh-by” wave to Crosby. You can also get a good feel for the Crosby love that was flowing inside the Verizon Center over at Puck Daddy. However, in my humble opinion the best post-game insight into the Ovechkin/Crosby rivalry was provided by Sport-Express’s Slava Malamud (via Tarik’s Capitals Insider Blog at WaPo), who caught up with Ovechkin after the game. How can you not love a quote like this?

“What, I can’t play hard against him? What is he going to do, cry?”

“Hotline” (or “Direct Line”, take your pick) is a regular feature of Sovetsky Sport, whereby the fans are allowed to post questions which are then provided to a major sports figure for their replies. In tomorrow’s edition they have published (my head hurts from that use of two diametrically opposed tenses, but gotta love the whole global time-zone thing) a Q&A with Ovechkin. Dmitry Chesnokov has provided Japer’s Rink (and Puck Daddy) with a translation of a bit from the first installment of the Ovechkin series, and below is the entire article translated for your reading pleasure.

2/13/2008 P. Lysenkov

NHL MVP Alexander Ovechkin answers some questions from Sovetsky Sport readers posted on our sovsport.ru website. In the first part of “Hotline”, Ovechkin talks about the Olympics, reminiscing on Turin-2006 and dreaming about Sochi-2014.

The first question is from reader Denis: “Alexander, which world hockey trophies do you not yet have? And of the ones you have won, which is means the most to you?”

“All of my trophies mean a lot to me, since I won them through hard work. But first of all would have to be the Gold Medal from the World Championship in Quebec.  As for which ones I don’t yet have… I have yet to win an Olympic medal or a Stanley Cup.

It is difficult to compare these two competitions. You represent your country at the winter games, and the Olympics only happen once every four years. As for winning there-it is difficult enough just to qualify.

For the Stanley Cup you have to play 82 games in the regular season. You work like a horse to make it to the play-offs and then you work even harder. It is a totally different priority, but winning both trophies is my goal.” (more…)

I’ve just come back from a long “guys only” weekend. No web surfing, no translating, no thinking. Just hanging out with old friends, mountainbiking, hiking, eating, drinking and watching movies with crude humor and things that blow up real good. Now that I’m back home I found this interview Pavel Lysenkov at Sovetsky Sport conducted with Ovechkin a few days ago after the disappointing loss to the LA Kings.

2/7/2008 P. Lysenkov

Washington Forward Alexander Ovechkin: “You Can’t Play That Way”

After the game, your Sovetsky Sport reporter had an interview with Alexander Ovechkin, who was given his milestone puck right in the locker room.

Reporters were standing in the middle of the player’s room and were looking around perplexedly. There wasn’t a single hockey player there. Then Mike Green came out and he was immediately engulfed by the press.

Usually, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis makes his way to the locker room after a game, but the avuncular Greek wasn’t there. All of a sudden head coach Bruce Boudreau shot like a bullet into a neighboring room, where the team is located.  His face was bright red-either from anger or displeasure. It appeared that the players were now going to get an earful. Boudreau is an expressive fellow. He doesn’t mince his words.

At the request of the reporters, Ovechkin finally came out. He had a Capitals baseball cap pulled down over his eyes and a towel wrapped around his body, and another flung around his shoulders. Ovechkin seemed morose. Questions about his milestone goal seemed inappropriate, but nonetheless the American reporters started right out on that topic.

BRINGING US DOWN TO EARTH

You are now in some elite company.

“That is great, but our team lost. We did not play well our first two periods, and Los Angeles made good use of our mistakes. So I really don’t want to talk about my personal stats. If we had played the entire game like we played in the third period, everything could have turned out differently.” (more…)

And his name is Kovalchuk. Check out Slava Malamud’s guest blogger spot on Capitals Insider for the inside scoop on how Ovi’s craziest ever “hat trick” came about.

Oh, and sorry Slava–  but Ovi’s Hat Trick–

Photo: Getty

Was even cooler than your Gordie Howe/mad-bomber hat trick

Photo: Slava Malamud

H/T to “A View From the Cheap Seats” for finding  this video piece on the “Inside Hockey” segment on last night’s Hockey Night in Canada. Now where have I seen that game show clip before? I’m just glad to hear that somebody actually was able to call him.

Update: The vid is now on youtube so here it is for your viewing pleasure:

“Well, I think, you know, fans have to see how we are, who we are, you know. They see our skills and, I think the last trick like was just for fun. I think fans love it.”

H/T to Kukla’s Korner for the post-skills contest Q&A with Ovechkin which resulted in this fine quote.

Photo: Puck Daddy

Photo: Slava Malamud

The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close
Like brothers
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me
To the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

Click on the links to see the photos in their original articles. Thank you Pavel Lysenkov (Sovietsky Sport/PuckDaddy) and Slava Malamud (Sport Express) for the photos.

I’d like to thank to JP over at Japers Rink for giving my translations a wider audience. If you head over there you can find out Alex’s preference for an All-Star game.